Home » Itemization » Gear Enhancements for Hunters: Glyphs
Posted by Lassirra on October 27, 2008 // 18 Comments
Filed Under: Itemization, Leveling, Talents // Tags: Glyphs
Filed Under: Itemization, Leveling, Talents // Tags: Glyphs
In older posts, I covered gear enhancements for Hunters in the forms of gems and enchants. Now, with Inscription available to the masses, I felt it was high time to add the third part to the series: Glyphs. So, lets take a look at all the new Glyphs that Hunters will be interested in!
Major Glyphs
First, lets take a look at all the Hunter glyphs available. Once we’ve established our list of possibilities, we’ll break them down to see which are the most desirable.
- Glyph of Aimed Shot
- Glyph of Arcane Shot
- Glyph of Aspect of the Monkey
- Glyph of Deterrence
- Glyph of Disengage
- Glyph of Freezing Trap
- Glyph of Frost Trap
- Glyph of Hunter’s Mark
- Glyph of Immolation Trap
- Glyph of Multi-Shot
- Glyph of Rapid Fire
- Glyph of Serpent Sting
These are all the Major Glyphs currently available to Hunters. Now, keep in mind that you can only use three Major Glyphs at a time, so choosing the ones that will benefit you the most is important. Think about which play style you enjoy the most: PvE or PvP. Once you’ve determined that, narrowing your choices will be much easier.
PvE
Breaking the above list down, the following are clearly intended to enhance PvE game-play:
PvP
Likewise, there are also Glyphs that are quite obviously intended for increasing your effectiveness in PvP:
After covering those six Glyphs, I’m sure you’ll notice there are some we didn’t cover. That’s because their usefulness could be debated as to whether they’re best for PvE or PvP. For these, it’s a matter of how much you use the abilities they’re tied to, regardless of which type of play you enjoy:
Which Should I Choose?
The Glyphs you choose will be determined largely by your play style and the abilities you use most frequently. For PvE play, I would recommend:
These I chose because they should be featured prominently in any PvE rotation. Arcane Shot has always been a staple in most shot rotations, regardless of spec, and the mana return from this Glyph will be highly beneficial, especially during longer fights. Note that this particular Glyph has good synergy with one of the other Glyphs I’ve recommended: Glyph of Serpent Sting. Glyph of Serpent Sting is great for Hunters that have not specced 51-Deep in Marksmanship to pick up Chimera Shot. However, if you do have Chimera Shot, the Glyph of Rapid Fire might be a better choice, as your Chimera Shot will refresh your stings for you. And, of course, Glyph of Hunter’s Mark is an obvious choice.
For PvP play, I would recommend the following:
Your third choice of Glyphs for PvP play will depend entirely on what abilities you use most. Because PvP is ever-changing, and everyone has their own way of dealing with different circumstances, it’s hard to have a hard-and-fast rule for selecting Glyphs. If you frequently utilize traps in PvP, think about picking up one of the Trap Glyphs. If not, take a close look at the Deterrence or Disengage Glyphs.
Minor Glyphs
These are the Minor Glyphs currently available to Hunters. Like the Major Glyphs, you can only have three active at a time.
- Glyph of Feign Death
- Glyph of Mend Pet
- Glyph of Possessed Strength
- Glyph of Revive Pet
- Glyph of Scare Beast
- Glyph of the Pack
Unfortunately, the Minor Glyphs available to Hunters are rather lack-luster at the moment, and the pickings are slim. The most useful Minor Glyphs you’ll want to look for right now are:
Beyond these two, the choice is yours. If you frequently run lowbies around, or lead the charge back into instances from wipes, you may want to look into picking up a Glyph of the Pack. If you enjoy Arenas, and get a special kick out of fearing Druids, keep an eye out for Glyph of Scare Beast.
Glyph of Possessed Strength seems to me like a relatively useless Glyph. Very infrequently have I ever found a need to use my Eyes of the Beast ability. Also, the Glyph of Mend Pet is limited in it’s usefulness if you’ve specced your pet to gain happiness on his/her own, but this might be something to consider for the solo/farming crowd.
Check the Auction House
Even if you think it’s a bit early, start checking your Auction House now. I know on my server, there are already folks putting Glyph of Hunter’s Mark up there. Don’t buy right away! Because there are such a limited number of people that have gotten to 375 Inscription by now, prices are bound to be high. For now, just search for your desired Glyphs and take note of the prices people are charging. When the market is more friendly, then make your purchase.
Alternatively, if you’ve got a friend that was enterprising enough to have leveled Inscription already, ask them if they know how to make the Glyphs you’re looking for. Inscription’s secondary profession is Herbalism. Because people are cleaning out their banks before Wrath is released, you might be able to find a deal on the raw materials needed to make the Glyph you want, so check those prices as well.
Shopping List
If you already know someone that can craft these Glyphs for you, here’s your shopping list:
- Lion’s Ink – 2xGolden Pigment (Milled from: Grave Moss, Liferoot, Kingsblood, or Wild Steelbloom)
- Light Parchment
- Midnight Ink – 2xDusky Pigment (Milled from: Briarthorn, Bruiseweed, Swiftthistle, or Stranglekelp)
- Light Parchment
- Jadefire Ink – 2xEmerald Pigment (Milled from: Khadgar’s Whisker, Goldthorn, Fadeleaf, or Wintersbite)
- Common Parchment
Enjoy your new Glyphs!
Just what I needed! Thanks Lass!
Glyph of Serpent Sting isn’t entirely useless for marksman hunters, either. By adding another tick to Serpent Sting, it increases Serpent Sting portion of Chimera Shot damage by 40% of an additional Serpent Sting tick. Whether that makes the glyph worth using for marksman hunters or not, I’m not sure, but at least it does have some benefits.
Aimed Shot is a better single-target DPS option than Arcane Shot for marksmen at this point, so I suggest glyph of aimed shot rather than arcane if you’re raiding marksman right now.
@Lor — You know that’s what I’m here for.
@Pneuma — I’ll gladly concede your point. The reason I suggested considering the Rapid Fire Glyph instead for MM Hunters is simply because of the nature of the Glyph interface itself. As we all know, you’re limited to three of each type of Glyph. That being the case, many MMers with Chimera Shot may find it more prudent to buff an ability they haven’t already buffed elsewhere, such as Rapid Fire. (Although, the Rapid Recuperation talent would also come into play in these considerations.)
@Sade — What numbers do you have to back-up that claim? (I haven’t seen that to be the case, personally.) That aside, not all Hunters (in fact, the majority) aren’t MM.
One minor correction. It takes 5 of the herbs to be milled into 2-4 pigments (it’s 2 more often than not at higher level materials), and it’s 2 pigments per ink.
So, 5 herbs to 1 ink is a more likely ratio.
@Luke — I was going by what WoWHead said were the required materials. In each case, WoWHead indicated 1 of each herb per pigment, resulting in 2x each herb for two pigments.
Put Mend Pet on the list. Yeah, +20 happiness isn’t a big deal, until your pet drops to Neutral happiness in the middle of a boss fight, when that “useless” glyph pops your DPS back up.
And Glyph of Serpent Sting makes Chimera Shot do a bit more damage, so it’s worth grabbing until the WotLK ones become available.
@Ringo — Mend Pet is on the list.
[...] briefly covered her idea on using [Glyph of Multi-Shot] (which I have picked up along with [Glyph of Hunter's Mark]) and [...]
@ Lassirra thank you! Been looking for something like this. But I don’t understand something. Most of the well-blogging hunters have stated that one doesn’t use Serpent Sting once Steady Shot has been learned. Yet, you picked Glymp of Serpent Sting as a wise choice of glymps. Any reason why? Has SS made a come back? Thank you in advance.
(continue) sorry, click too fast. I am specc’d 51 in BM with the rest going all over the place right now and only pve.
@Sigrdrifa– Yes, Serpent Sting has made a come-back. Since 3.0, the mechanics of the sting have changed quite a bit, making it much more worthwhile. It should be added back into rotations.
I like the mend pet. I no longer have to carry food for my pet. This frees up at least 2, if not more bag slots for the different foods for different pets. Two bag slots are not as big a deal on say my druid, but with one slot taken for a quiver it helps. This also helps for the times when you do a surprise tame pet and don’t have the type of food for that pet family.
oh yeah, and with mend pet i have one less mod i need to use although feed-o-matic is an awesome mod.
Thank you Lassirra! I’ll look into it and start using it again. (pssst – to tell you the truth, I miss it. I always like opening with SS. It gave me way to see how long I was taking with my kills.
). But I have been playing with other stings and like them too.
@Dysmal Another thing, last night I tamed a moneky. Of course I had no fruits or breads only a few meats. But once I went into the talents,and after putting my points away, I put 2 points in Guard Dog. I did not have to feed my pet! Just using him in combat gave him happiness. Hopefully Blizz won’t nerf that
Glyph of Multi & Aimed Shot recommended for PvP? I think any serious PvP-er would always take the glyph of Aspect of the Monkey & the glyph of Disengage as the first 2 options.
@Pneuma – Has there been a difinitive answer on this yet? Perhaps a blue post? I have seen mixed reviews as whether Glyph of Serpent Sting adds additional damage or just spreads the damage out longer. I will say however, the extra 3 seconds have been great for raiding as there are a lot of fights that cause you to move around and the 3 seconds can help keep you from having to reapply your sting.
@Larissa – The top Glyph now is Improved Steady Shot. From there the other 2 options SHOULD not include Arcane Shot for PVE. Well, neither for PVP. In fact it’s quite a useless Glyph. Glyph of Imp. AotH would be a good choice for BM or MM hunters considering the MM raiding spec also includes IAotH. Glyph of Hunter’s Mark should be looked at carefully if you want that as there may already be another hunter in your raid with it… I would coordinate with the raid leader and make sure 1 hunter has both the Glyph as well as the 3 pt’s into the talent.
Oh and @Larissa and Sade, yes for a Barrage Build (MM)the Glyph of Aimed Shot potentially could add more DPS than Glyph of IaotH. It all depends if you have enough Mana Battery’s in your raid group to support including Aimed Shot into your rotation, and if you picked up Aimed Shot with the barrage talents.